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Services & funding > Services for young people > Canterbury > Christchurch YMCA case study
Case study: Adventure Conservation
Young people in Christchurch have been given the chance to turn their lives around through a 20-week programme that offers alternative education, challenging recreation and a variety of conservation work.
 The Christchurch YMCA runs Adventure Conservation, a programme that is
funded by the Ministry of Youth Development’s Services for Young People
fund.
The programme has been operating since 1990 and is aimed at young
people who have had very limited schooling and work experience and want
the chance to improve their life skills. Adventure Conservation works
with the young people as a group to build skills for life, such as
resiliency to enable them to overcome obstacles and gain positive
experiences.
John, the programme supervisor has been running Conservation Corps
programmes for four years. He has extensive outdoor education skills
and provides most of the instruction for the outdoor activities and the
challenging recreation.
For many participants this it is the first time they have done outdoor
adventure activities and John believes that participants should start
with these outdoor activities at the beginning of the programme to
build their own confidence and create a strong team bond. “Some of the
outdoor activities include tramping, camping, kayaking, and rock
climbing,” says John.
“These activities build trust, co-operation, resiliency, and coping
skills; they have to keep warm and feed themselves in the outdoors.
Activities get more challenging as the programme progresses – it’s
important to keep the momentum going”.
One of the highlights for participants is the “solo” exercise of the
programme. This involves three days camping with minimum resources
totally on your own, but monitored by the supervisor.
Some of the conservation projects participants have been involved in
include developing and maintaining tracks, planting tress and
monitoring the Kiwi population. “These activities teach young people
about conservation and build a connection to the environment and to the
community,” John added.
As well as the outdoor and environmental education, the programme
offers te ao Māori, and personal development. The te ao Maori component
of the programme includes the language, culture, and arts; participants
present a mihi every morning.
The young people can work towards some formal qualifications as well,
unit standards, a driver’s licence, first aid certificate and the Young
New Zealander’s Challenge.
The programme has a focus on healthy living and provides advice to
participants on sexual health, drug and alcohol education, and fitness
and nutrition. Participants practice good nutrition on their trips away
tramping and camping.
At the conclusion of the 20-week programme, participants graduate and
their parents attend. John says that this is when parents most reflect
on the positive change they observe in their children.
Most of the participants stay on the programme for the 20-weeks. At the
end of the programme, participants are well placed to get a job or go
into vocational training. They have some qualifications, and they have
the experience of going somewhere every day, participating, rising to
challenges, and getting on with all kinds of people.
The Ministry of Youth Development funds services for young people that
aim to increase the confidence of young people help them set goals for
the future, increase their personal and relationship skills, improve
health and wellbeing and reduce offending and other risks that are
barriers to movement into further education, training and employment.
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